SteveDunne

Congrats to Sharon B on winning signed copies of two of my books and commiserations to those who missed out. My entire oeuvre is available on kindle for just over a tenner if people are minded and thanks again to those who promised to check me out. Hope you're not disappointed.

My fifth DI Brook thriller, A Killing Moon, is nearly finished and should be in the shops later this year. That will be followed by a day in bed and a week of walking around the Peak District trying to forget what 4 walls look like. It's always a weird time. Such relief giving way to the nagging voice in your head that says, "What's next?"

Hi Michelle Signatures completed at my end. Thanks again everyone.

As the month is drawing to a close, I'd just like to thank Michelle for inviting me to guest and all the readers who have taken the trouble to ask questions and read our answers. Thanks also to all those members who might be tempted to try my work. I hope you enjoy it. If any further questions (or comments or reviews of my books) beyond this month, members can email me from the link on my website www.stevendunne.co.uk Thanks again everyone and, as I am now a member, I will drop in from time to time, work permitting. It's been very enjoyable.

I agree with the Patterson comment. I know he's very successful but the books read like extended film treatments, not novels, though I'm happy to watch a Patterson-sourced film for the same reason.

That's always a tricky one. I don't so much mind characters acting in a way inconsistent with their personalities because what we show to the world is often a façade masking murky waters beneath. And let's face it, Agatha Christie built her career on criminals not being what they seemed. My big bugbear is the way coincidence moves a plot forward. It always smacks of desperation and a way of joining a plot together that wouldn't otherwise work. I don't wholly dismiss such coincidences but they have to be handled very smartly for me to accept them. Kate Atkinson is very good at such conceits though sometimes stretches the bounds of credibility, if with great skill and entertainment.

Literary Fiction, no doubt. Something pretentious with no plot demands that just fizzles out and I can take 5 years between books.

Good luck everyone.

Hi bobblybear. It's an odd thing and people are always surprised but it's true. Publishers have dedicated artwork depts. or design companies they use for this and we get little say other than to ask for approval. And even disapproval may not see the cover changed. I originally self-published my first novel Reaper with a black and red cover and a scalpel (Don't ask!) When Harper Collins picked up the rights they changed the title to The Reaper (not massive I know) and provided a different cover the relevance to the actual book I still struggle to understand. They also dumped the wonderful strapline I came up with (Well I think so - Coming soon to a family near you!) If you go to my Amazon page you can still see both. No amount of protests would get them to budge an inch. Basically they're the experts and they're taking the financial risk so I guess it's fair enough.

Start with The Boss. Thomas Harris. Red Dragon or Silence of the Lambs then move onto Michael Connolly.

I hate to say this Athena but you are the perfect reader for what I do. Everything you like in a crime thriller we share. I hope you enjoy The Reaper.

I agree with Sam on this. Thrillers tend to be in the present and involve current troubles for the protagonist, usually involving some kind of race against time. Lee Child and Simon Kernick for instance. Crime novels are usually a puzzle to solve involving events that have already happened. It is crime novels, more often than not, that will often involve flashbacks to bring the past into the present like The Stone Cutter by Camilla Lackberg or a cold case novel like my own The Unquiet Grave which has to lay out past crimes to give the reader a fair chance to solve the puzzle. (Don't mean to keep blowing my own trumpet but it's quicker to reference than trying to come up with other examples)

Athena the covers are so important and as an author, although we don't have enormous control over what is suggested, after four novels, I'm beginning to get the hang of what's required. My third novel, DEITY, is about the vulnerability of teenagers and explores the ease with which a so-minded individual can push them towards self-harm or suicide. I quite liked the cover when shown to me, it was moody and mysterious, but I've since realised that it did not shout "Crime Thriller" at customers. With The Unquiet Grave, I was able to mention this and was rewarded with a cover that corrected that omission as well as intriguing the reader. I know the blurb is important, though I personally don't read more than two lines. I am now in a position to write my own blurbs thankfully but at my previous publisher I didn't have that power. Having strived for a year or more to conjure up half a dozen seriously good shocks I found it galling to have three of them given away on the back cover. Probably why I don't read them.

I'll read anything that takes my fancy but have an abiding interest in American literature. In my own novels, my detective DI Damen Brook is usually fending off some level of existential crisis, not unnaturally given the job he does and the things he's seen. There are no bigger questions for me than why are we here and what should we do with our brief lives and novels like Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe tackle these conundrums head on. These are big sweeping novels tackling the big themes that I love. I also have a tendency to veer towards foreign writers as a form of armchair tourism having not travelled nearly enough in my own life. America is a fascinating melting pot of contrasts and I never tire of reading about it. In crime, the writers I like best are ones that take me to their country and show me round. Connelly, Mankell, Larsson and the daddy of them all, Thomas Harris to name but a few.

Thanks Alexi, Michelle and everyone buying or checking out my work. I'm confident you won't be disappointed but either way you can send comments and a review to www.stevendunne.co.uk I'll put up all feedback, positive or negative, if spoiler-free.

For me, the bottom line for reading a thriller is that it should challenge me. It should be an intellectual and emotional puzzle that I have to solve. And if I solve it before I'm supposed to there's always a level of disappointment regardless of how great the story or the characters are. For this reason, I don't really go in for reading (or writing) Jack Reacher-style thrillers. I read a couple and they were brilliantly put together and stylishly written. However you always know Reacher will succeed in the end. Not a problem if I'm watching a two-hour film but a book is a larger investment of my time and I need to start without any preconceptions or foreknowledge of what will happen.

I'm very flattered by all your kind comments but hand on heart I don't think you'll be disappointed whichever book you read of mine. I put a lot into them and I always try to link my plots to social reality so I can explore issues, however briefly. In Deity that issue is teenage suicide, something that stems from the disaffection and outright confusion that some young people feel about their lives. The high cost of The Reaper paperback on Amazon, Michelle, represents the cost of printing one copy on demand. It's absurd I know. My first publisher, Harper Collins, did a large print run and the book was so successful that they ran out but their business model didn't allow for a reprint so when the sequel, The Disciple, came out the first book in the pair was out of print. Needless to say, Disciple, though critically acclaimed, did not do good business - how many new readers am I going to get for a sequel if the first book is unavailable? - and shortly after "Harper Collins left me under a cloud" as I like to say. The daft thing is word of mouth keeps The Reaper selling, even at that price, and the kindle version is never far from the top 10,000 - not bad for a 5 year old debut novel. But having left HC, they're not minded to reprint. Hey ho.

PS Before anyone asks I haven't included a picture having failed at several attempts. Believe me, if I had the first clue how to upload one I would have done it. (See website for ugly mug.)

Ooops. Forgot one. 4) Comedy. Violence and death is not funny. You can have a bit of throwaway gallows humour from seasoned professionals but that's it. Besides, if the jokes aren't funny where are you? Turned off in my case.

I applaud your scruples and share them. I still teach from time to time so I'm loth to include material that an inquisitive pupil might come across on the internet. It's all in the writing. My first publisher compared me to a famous Scottish writer so I read one of his books. When a character cut off someone's fingers and made the victim eat them I stopped reading and told Harper Collins that my books were nothing like the author they wished to couple me with.

All good pet peeves for sure. My big no-no's are 1) Police officers who cry. It's a tough job and you see things that toughen you up or drive you out of the force. I prefer the Dirty Harry brand of cynicism and world weariness to the Ken Stott school of artful blubbing. 2) This may sound odd but violence and torture. I hate books that leave nothing to the imagination and even take delight in showing protracted scenes of torture and suffering. Violence is far more effective when discovered after the act and left to the imagination. 3) My most contentious no-no is sex. I wrote one sex scene in my first novel The Reaper. It was tasteful and short I hope and was at the end of the book. It seemed a natural catharsis to what had gone before but I haven't included one since and if I'm reading a thriller that contains sex it had better be natural and unforced or I'm likely to stop reading knowing the author is struggling for plot ideas.

I've only got 4 so far Karsa so take your pick. If you're on kindle, The Reaper and The Disciple are cheaper and are a pair but Deity and The Unquiet Grave have drawn the highest critical average on Amazon. Thanks for considering me. You won't regret it.

There are many sub genres within the crime "envelope" and historical crime is just one. In fact, because crime is the single most popular genre, more and more writers/publishers are classifying their novels as crime when they wouldn't have been considered as such ten years ago. There's a growing body of "crime" that deals with relationships breaking up (The Silent Wife, Gone Girl) and a huge body of work that once would have come under the heading "family drama" which is now included under the "Psychological Drama" label. I don't read enough historical crime fiction but have just discovered Imogen Robertson's wonderful series. The Paris Winter, set in 1900s Paris is a revelation.

I love the Stieg Larsson trilogy, Mankell and Michael Connolly. And, of course, all things Sherlock. I'm also becoming better known in the UK for my series of critically-acclaimed serial killer thrillers set in and around Derby featuring the lugubrious, misunderstood genius DI Damen Brook. Look forward to some of you giving them a go. Steve Dunne

Yes, why don't you buy more of my books? LOL.